The law says what the law says but reality is different.
If there is a DV call and a cop investigates and it is her word against his without any physical evidence legally, the cop shouldn't arrest. BUT, the first time that happens and she gets beaten to a coma or to death after the cop leaves well, then, we just can't have that.
Essentially, once the cops show up to your house on a DV call, somebody is spending the night in jail. Even if the alleged victim changes her story and tells the officer that nothing happened, somebody is still very likely to get arrested.
That's just the way it is.
The problem here is that proving a DV case in a court of law is very hard unless you have independent witnesses or physical evidence. I prosecuted hundreds of DV cases. Many times I went to trial on a 911 recording where she's screaming for her life and police observed "redness on the left cheek" or "swollen lip and puffy eye". Typically, the victim either wouldn't show up for trial or would show up and tell the jury she got drunk and called 911 because she was drunk and mad at him, and he didn't really hit her, she stumbled and fell, 'cause she was drunk.
It's really hard to win these cases because that's not a lot of proof to overcome the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard.
With so much riding on the line, you can expect players will fight these charges tooth and nail. The victims won't cooperate (they know which side of their bread is buttered). He's sorry he did it and he bought me a new Escalade. He shouldn't lose half his salary on top of that, right?
It also allows for unscrupulous women to exploit NFL players. You meet a guy with one 6 month suspension in a bar. Go to his place, hit yourself in the face with his i-pad which has his prints all over it, threaten to call 9-11 unless he comes up with the cash. There are gold-diggers looking for these guys. They try to get knocked up to get on that NFL money gravy train.
We're not just talking about thugs here. Warren Moon caught a DV charge in 1995. Moon was acquitted after his wife testified that she initiated the violence and that he was trying to restrain her. Playing for the Vikings in 1995 Moon had a career season throwing for over 4K yards and 33 touchdowns. If the rule was in place then, would Moon have been suspended for 6 months? Remember, he was acquitted in a court of law, but it is highly likely he did it and she covered for him after the fact. They divorced a couple of years later.
If you insist on a criminal conviction, this has no teeth. If you go on whether the Commish thinks you did it, it might have too many teeth. Make sense?
I would set a guideline of 3 strikes, first time is half a season, second time is full season, third time is a lifetime ban with the standard of proof being "substantial likelihood" that the player did it (higher than "preponderance of the evidence" but lower than "beyond a reasonable doubt").
Alex.